Thank you to Dr Peter O'Callaghan
- Sandra Davies
- Jul 31
- 1 min read
On Saturday 5th July 2025 Dr Peter O'Callaghan Consultant Cardiologist University Hospital of Wales and Hon Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University attended our meeting in Abergavenny.
Dr O'Callaghan started his presentation telling us the history of external Cardiac Defibrillation from 1930-1960's and in 1966 Dr M Mirowski conceived the idea of an implantable defibrillator after his friend dies of a sudden cardiac death.
Dr O'Callaghan spoke about survival rates from time of 1st shock from an external defibrillator = key to survival
1 minute to defibrillation gives 90% chance of survival from a Cardiac Arrest
2 minutes to defibrillation gives 80% chance of survival from a Cardiac Arrest
and so on but
9 minutes to defibrillation gives 10% chance of survival from a Cardiac Arrest.
Average time for ambulance to attend a scene and administer an external defibrillator is 8 minutes which gives a casualty a 20% chance of survival from a Cardiac Arrest.
If there is a public access defibrillator close by and can be administered within 3-4 minutes the survival from cardiac arrest is between 70-60%.
Members who have an Internal Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD) learnt that the device delivers a shock in 20 seconds with a survival rate from a Cardiac Arrest of 99.9%.
